A Quiet Reflection
by Jaegothis
Summary: GtI universe. Aegothis and Roman have a cozy fireside chat and reminisce about the good old days. One-shot.


Snow fell outside the cottage, clumping in little drifts and collecting on the paned windows. A merry fire crackled, sending flickering shadows dancing on the empty walls. Two chairs sat before the flames. A Snivy occupied one, tapping his leafy paws against a mug of hot chocolate. The other chair was empty. The Snivy's eyes kept flicking to the door expectantly.

He had just drained his cup when a Pikachu burst in, covered from head to toe in snow. The Snivy hardly spared him a glance and poured himself another cup of hot chocolate. "So, you finally decided to show up," he said dryly. "I was beginning to think you were trying to avoid me."

"Never," the Pikachu said, grinning. "But I did get lost, posed for a photo shoot, made a snowmon in your front yard, and I wrote a book." He shook himself off vigorously, sending snow flying everywhere. "Want a copy, Ae? I'll sign it myself."

The Snivy, Ae, glared disdainfully at anything unlucky enough to catch his eye, including the snowdrifts, the Pikachu, and the misshapen, vaguely Pikachu-shaped heap of snow outside. "Are you trying to build a snowmon in here, too?" He looked at the clock sitting above the mantel. "Sit down, Roman, we're late."

Roman chuckled. "For what? Neither of us has anywhere to be." He rustled through Ae's cupboards in search of a mug and poured himself some not-so-hot-now chocolate. His green eyes flashed in the firelight. "Really Ae, I don't think you ever outgrew our adventuring days. Do you ever slow down and relax, or are you always this fidgety?"

Ae sighed and wondered if it would be prudent to break out anything stronger than hot cocoa. The two of them sat down by the fireplace.

"So what's this for, exactly?" Roman asked. "You're writing a journal or something? Didn't you already write a book… what was it called, Gates to Infidelity or something?" He grinned, knowing full well what the book was called.

Ae groaned. "It's a more serious recap of our events, and I thought I'd try and get in touch with you again since you were there pretty much all the time. My memory isn't exactly what it was." He leaned back and watched the snow fall. "I guess we should start at the very beginning, huh?"

Roman closed his eyes and smiled. "Whatever happened to Jay? She kinda… dropped off the map a while ago. I haven't heard about her in at least a decade." He laughed, a bit breathily. "I feel old, Ae."

The Snivy shrugged. "She was always more unstable than the rest of us. Probably went off the deep end… or off a cliff." Ae laughed too. "I can finally say what I really want to about them. Wow, I really hated most of the team."

"Oh, I don't think you hated them that much. I think, deep inside-" Roman leaned forwards and tapped Ae's chest, "-you wanted to be on the team just as badly as the rest of us."

Ae looked down and coughed embarrassedly. "Maybe. Anyways, uh, why did you want to be an explorer? What made you want to risk life and limb in those dungeons?"

Roman tilted his head to one side. "I thought we were talking about our good ol' adventuring stories, not our biographies. Not that I'd complain about that either." He winked at thin air, clearly lost in some part of the past.

"I thought it would be good to have some personal thoughts for each character."

The Pikachu nodded and wrapped his paws around his lukewarm mug. He stared at the ceiling for a while before finally saying, "I wanted to be famous. Maybe not as, say, the greatest team in dungeon history, but I definitely wanted to make my mark in my own special way. I did what I loved- I traveled, and rapped-"

"Wonderful," Ae said, hastily cutting off the Pikachu. "I think we were all at that age when we wanted to be famous. But we went about it the wrong way. I mean, we attracted the attention of a dozen Legendaries." His gaze fell on a very old, ratty teddy bear sitting in a dark corner. "What would you say was the most fulfilling part of the journey?"

"I'd say all the… memorable companions we had. Although I could have lived without a few, mainly the ones trying to blow me up all the time." Roman winced a bit as he thought of Dust, the Absol. "I can't imagine the adventures without them."

Ae laughed a little. "Do you think we were privileged or very unlucky to meet them?"

His companion shrugged. "We were the outcast team, so I think we were the only ones that they could really fit in with. I mean, no properly functioning team could hope to use them. I-" Roman stopped mid-sentence as another thought struck him. "Ae, do you think we were a real team or just playing a game the whole time?"

Ae idly stirred the fire with an iron poker, eliciting a warm crackle and groan from the flames. "Define a 'real' team. We _did_ complete missions, just in our off-brand way. But I don't think we were ever really serious about the dungeon life, more like a bunch of kids that wanted a taste of adventure."

Roman nodded, accepting the answer. "Looking back, I wonder how we managed to stay alive." He met Ae's eyes, sensing the interview was drawing to a close. "Before I leave, I have a question for you. What would you have done differently if you had the chance to live those days again?"

Ae didn't respond for a while. He finished his cup of cold cocoa and set it on the floor. "I'd enjoy my time with everyone. Back then I never really thought that my adventuring time would ever really end."

"Alright," Roman said. "For the record, I'm glad I met all of you."

Ae didn't say anything until the Pikachu disappeared into the swirling snow. He sighed. "He really grew up, didn't he?"

 **Hey there. I really do love my GtI cast way too much, and I missed them. So I brought back an old Ae and Roman to have a cozy fireside chat together. I don't even know if anyone will read this! I wrote it mainly for myself.**

 **I do apologize for completely disappearing off the map, though. I doubt I'll really be able to upload anything consistently as I am going into my senior year shortly as well as doing some college classes. Unfortunately my schedule is pretty booked.**

 **Till next time!**


End file.
